LeBron James made his first appearance on a basketball court since April when he suited up and played in a Drew League game earlier this month. James teamed up with DeMar DeRozan, a fixture in the annual Los Angeles-based pro-am league, to put on a show in a packed gym at King/Drew Magnet High School in his first Drew League appearance in more than a decade.
The game generated a ton of interest from basketball fans, and in the aftermath, DeRozan appeared on Draymond Green’s podcast to discuss what happened. DeRozan told Green that James got in touch a week before about potentially playing in a game. The news of James heading to the Drew hit the internet the day before things tipped off, and DeRozan recalled showing up to the gym and being greeted by thousands of fans.
"Just to see the kids out there being able to see @KingJames come play in Compton, you cannot beat that"
—@DeMar_DeRozan speaks with @Money23Green on the significance of LeBron playing at the Drew League pic.twitter.com/ekn4vLu221
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) July 28, 2022
“It was one of those moments that you can’t duplicate,” DeRozan said. “Like, I remember when Kob came and played at the Drew, that was one of the most epic moments, how he did that. But there wasn’t even supposed to be a game played that day. So, this time around, with Bron coming, it was a game that was supposed to be played. I’d been playing in it, and to wake up that morning and see the line around the Drew League stretch around the corner, it just took it back to that old school, early-2000s feel.”
DeRozan went on to talk about how special it was for children to see James play basketball in that building, which helped make the environment “special.”
“[There were] a couple moments where I just looked around, you see kids, just … the smile and the excitement on their face, like, that’s something that they’re gonna remember forever,” DeRozan said. “And that’s what it’s all about.”
